The world's largest industrial real estate owner, Prologis, has benefited greatly from the shift to online shopping that is driving the industrial sector, particularly due to demand from its largest tenant — Amazon.
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This year the company’s shares rose 22% through October, Forbes reports. E-commerce customers make up about 10% of Prologis’ portfolio, and approximately 20% of its new sales can be traced to e-commerce companies as well as demand from delivery companies like DHL, UPS and FedEx, indicating that there is plenty of future growth potential in this sector.
That is one of the reasons developers are investing massive amounts of money into building new warehouse space. More than $2.6B was spent on U.S. warehouse construction in September, according to the Toronto Star. This is triple the amount spent in September 2012. The size of warehouses has also more than doubled since 2001 and has now grown to an average of 188K SF.
But it is not just size that matters. Location is equally important, especially as population growth causes congestion in major metro areas, which could slow down last-mile delivery.
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